The City of Gainesville plans to make renovations to the downtown Streatery, a stretch of Southwest 1st Avenue that has been closed off to traffic since September 2020.
The city closed two blocks of Southwest 1st Avenue between Southwest 2nd Street and South Main Street during COVID to give business owners outdoor space to serve customers. Now, the city commission wants to renovate the closed street into a space that can better host festivals, markets and other activities.
Construction will begin in December or January 2026, according to Gainesville’s public works director, Brian Singleton, and the project will take a year to complete. The commission approved the project in October.
There are differing opinions on the plans for the Streatery. Some people are excited for the change, while others are concerned about the nightlife these renovations might attract.
Teresa Callen, a commercial sales and leasing agent at Portal Realty and member of the Downtown Advisory Board, said the design does not consider the housing that will be built later this year on Lot 10, located at 100 SW First Avenue.
“To have any kind of a late-night event space right next door to housing is a little bit problematic,” she said.
Jacob Larson, the owner of The Bull, said he is optimistic about the new and improved Streatery.
“I think it’s just going to bring joy to Gainesvillians and people that visit here,” he said about the design.
Larson is one of the business owners on the Streatery who has utilized the pedestrian-only street.
Businesses like The Bull and How Bazaar have used the blocks for outdoor events like night markets and trivia contests. Festivals like the Annual Downtown Festival and Art Show have taken place in the Streatery.
Meg Haley runs The Bull’s social media and marketing, and she said the street designated for pedestrians is a great marketing tool.
“People walking downtown all the time going from bar to bar come by our street, hear live music, come by and see what's up, and then stick around and stay,” she said.
She said the Streatery allows people to discover new parts of Gainesville.
“There are so many things happening on these streets that people would not know about if they [the events] were inside,” Haley said.
Singleton said the renovated location is meant to draw more people downtown.
“We're definitely looking forward to improving the infrastructure in downtown and having another public space for gathering,” he said.
Among the approved design elements are dimmable streetlights, raised intersections, more outdoor seating and brick pavers, Singleton said.
The renovations will cost $3.2 million, Singleton said, plus the costs of a gateway amenity facing South Main Street. So far, the landmark entrance has not been decided, he said.
The news of an updated “Streatery” is exciting to some people like Tom Miller, a Gainesville performance artist and bartender at The Bull.
“Right now, there's just a couple of businesses in operation,” Miller said. “So, it's a perfect time to take a place that needs this development and work it into something that's going to be beneficial for everybody.”
Callen said the design should meet the needs of the residents in nearby housing, and they will need a public space where they can retreat from urban landscape.
“An urban area is beautiful to live in as long as it's been planned well,” Callen said, “so I just want a little more thought to go into some of the design elements of that space.”
She said the Downtown Advisory board hoped the renovations would improve the quality of life for future residents in Lot 10, a building that will directly overlook the Streatery when it’s built.
The board has been reviewing plans for the Streatery the last few months during its monthly meeting, Callen said, and it was hoping the renovations would be a more “park-like setting."
“Anything that's going to be beautiful or a more attractive element to our downtown is a very welcomed opportunity,” she said, “and it's an opportunity that should not be taken lightly."
Betsy Hurst, a Gainesville resident who has lived in the city her whole life, said she wants the city to keep the historic bricks on the street instead of repaving it with new bricks.
“It will not survive the way these have survived,” she said about the new bricks. “These bricks do not need as much maintenance.”
Singleton said the historic bricks need to be replaced because the beveled edges make it hard for people with mobility issues to walk on. High heels and canes can get caught in the gaps, and he said the street should be easy for anyone to walk on.
Matthew Hurst, Betsy’s son, said it’s nice to walk down a brick road knowing it’s the same one that has been walked on for generations.
Historic downtown areas should have a form of authenticity, he said.
“You can go to an amusement park, you can go to a shopping center, and a lot of that looks very pretty, but it's not authentic,” he said.
Hurst said he thinks the city should do spot maintenance on the century-old bricks instead of replacing them with new materials that might not last as long.
“I think our government needs to focus on the easiest, most cost-effective, obvious solution,” he said, “and that is if you have something there and it's withstood the test of time for a century, by all means fix it.”
Singleton said the bricks will be removed by hand, and all the undamaged bricks will be stored in a stockpile used to replace damaged bricks on other streets.
He also said the bricks might be used in a potential archway for the renovated Streatery, which would face South Main Street, but the archway has not been approved as the gateway amenity yet.
Larson said he is concerned about the short-term effects of the renovation.
The Bull changed its business model into more of a venue space, Larson said, and 30% of its income comes from free events hosted in the Streatery.
One weekly event is salsa dance classes on Thursday nights, when more than a 100 people come to dance outside The Bull for free lessons hosted by the Gator Salsa Club, a student-led organization affiliated with the University of Florida.
Outdoor events create more pedestrian curiosity, Larson said, and people come in to buy drinks.
“We'll have to get really creative to figure out how to offset those income numbers,” he said.
Singleton said the city will work with businesses to ensure customers can still access them, but events will not be able to continue during construction.
Larson suggested the city should look into funds for something similar to a rent subsidy during construction if there's going to be a drop in business.
He said if The Bull can make it to the other side of the renovation, he is hopeful the beautiful space would draw people in and benefit current and future businesses to fill empty locations.
“It'll really elevate the types and quality and hopefully diversity of opportunities of businesses that we have that just aren't only places to eat and drink,” he said.
